Vence L. Bonham Jr. facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Vence L. Bonham Jr.
Education	Michigan State University (BA) Ohio State University (JD)

Vence L. Bonham Jr. is an American lawyer who works at the U.S. National Institutes of Health. He is the acting Deputy Director of the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI). This means he helps lead an important group that studies human genes. He also leads the NHGRI Health Disparities Unit. This team works to make sure everyone has a fair chance to be healthy.

Mr. Bonham's research looks at how things in our lives affect our health. He is especially interested in how new discoveries about genes can impact society.

His Education and Career

Vence Bonham Jr. went to Michigan State University and earned his first degree in 1978. After that, he taught history and social studies to middle school students.

Later, he decided to study law. He earned his law degree from Ohio State University Moritz College of Law in 1982. His mother was a social worker at a school, and his father was a science teacher.

Mr. Bonham started his career working with healthcare laws. He then received a special fellowship to study health services research. For several years, he taught about health policy and ethics to medical students at Michigan State. In 2002, he joined the NHGRI. He is also part of a committee that helps guide health research for Native American tribes at the NIH.

What He Researches

Mr. Bonham's work focuses on making healthcare fair and using new gene science responsibly.

Genomics and Health Equity

As the leader of the Health Disparities Unit at NHGRI, Mr. Bonham works to achieve health equity. This means making sure that everyone, no matter where they live or who they are, has fair access to gene-related healthcare. This includes getting gene tests and counseling, and making sure gene medicine is used fairly for all people around the world.

He has worked to improve laws about how genomics (the study of genes) is used in hospitals and clinics. He also helps make sure that precision medicine (medicine tailored to each person) serves communities that have not always had good healthcare.

Mr. Bonham and his team have created tools to understand what doctors know about race and human differences. These tools help them see how doctors' beliefs might affect patient care.

Sickle Cell Disease

Mr. Bonham is an expert on sickle cell disease (SCD). This is a genetic blood disorder. He has written about how to treat, test for, and study patients with SCD. He also knows a lot about the history of this condition and new scientific discoveries related to it.

At NHGRI, he leads a program called INSIGHTS. This study looks at adults with sickle cell disease. It explores how genes, tiny living things in the body (microbes), physical health, and social factors all play a role in the disease. Mr. Bonham sees SCD as a condition that shows how unfair healthcare can be. He says that people with SCD often don't get the treatment and attention they need. This makes SCD an important disease to study when thinking about fair healthcare.

He also wrote an article with Lisa E. Smilan about the legal and ethical questions of changing genes in body cells to treat sickle cell disease. This was for the North Carolina Law Review in 2019.

Mr. Bonham and his team are working with the World Health Organization and researchers in Sierra Leone. They are studying adults with SCD there. They also want to increase newborn screening for the disease. They are looking at the ethical and practical issues of new treatments that could cure SCD in developing countries.

Ethics of Gene Editing

New technologies like CRISPR allow scientists to change genes. Mr. Bonham stresses that sickle cell disease is a key example of why it's important to respect people, be fair, and work together globally as gene technology grows.

Some of the first studies using CRISPR to change genes in body cells are for treating sickle cell disease. Mr. Bonham and his colleagues have found that people joining these studies might not fully understand everything. This could stop them from giving truly informed consent (meaning they fully understand and agree to participate). He believes it's very important to talk with people who have SCD about new treatments. He also emphasizes protecting them and making sure they get fair care.

Personal Life

Mr. Bonham and his wife live in Bethesda, Maryland. They have two sons. He enjoys art and has his own collection, mostly of African-American art.